Jane George on Axel Heiberg Island
On the barren
slopes of an ancient estuary, well above the Arctic Circle and today's tree
line, stumps, logs and remnants of leaves that covered the forest floor 45
million years ago can still be found in their original
state. The fossil forest on Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, is even more
extraordinary because it is not petrified, or
turned to stone, but mummified. Most other ancient forests
have long since been reduced to oil or coal. But here in a polar deep freeze,
the plants and trees have
kept their original form and tissue. Other fossil forests
exist in Australia and Germany, notes James Basinger, a paleo botanist at the
University of Saskatchewan
who has extensively studied the fossils of Axel Heiberg
since 1986. "But this is the only site where information is exposed in
this way."
That in itself is causing concern. Although Axel Heiberg is
at the top of the world, helicopters frequently drop by from the Canadian
military base at nearby Eureka,
and in August as many as 150 passengers from cruise ships
also tour the site. Some trample fossils or take pieces for souvenirs. Basinger
has removed six stumps for
study and display at the University of Saskatchewan and in
Ottawa at the Museum of Nature. In fact, of more than 200 stumps that were
recorded in one section of
the fossil forest in 1991, less than half may still remain.
This summer, the fossil forest has also -- and
controversially -- been pock-marked with trenches dug by a research team from
the United States. Funded by a $
1.6-million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the
scientists came to Axel Heiberg to study what the site reveals about
prehistoric weather conditions in
the area. Gaunt and forbidding now, Axel Heiberg's rolling
hills bear traces of more than 20 separate forest layers, testifying to a
lengthy warm spell during the
Eocene period 40 to 50 million years ago when mean annual
polar temperatures ranged from seven to 15 deg. C. Tall trees not unlike the
towering redwoods of the
Pacific Northwest -- and genetically similar to birch, alder
and swamp cypress -- grew beside a meandering river delta hundreds of
kilometers wide. Some of these
giants were 35 m high, with stumps 2.5 m around, and appear
to have lived for as long as 1,000 years.
The existence of these fossils in the High Arctic was first
noted in the 1880s by the Adolphus Washington Greely Expedition. But what has
never been clear is how
forests flourished in latitudes where they slept through the
long polar night. "We have no forests on Earth where the trees are so big
and have to sit in the dark for
three months," observes Art Johnson, director of the
Mellon project and a forest ecologist from the University of Pennsylvania.
The American scientists plan to test samples to determine
the levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the ancient atmosphere. This will
tell them whether the
atmosphere 40 million years ago was loaded with the
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, or was more similar to today's despite the much
higher global temperatures.
Then, they intend to duplicate the ancient forest's living
conditions with contemporary redwood seedlings grown in special chambers. In
the end, the results may
contribute to an understanding that, despite rising sea
levels and torrential storms, global warming may also bring about some positive
effects, with the possibility of
productive forests -- the lungs of a healthy planet --
returning to the high latitudes.
Though it has a legitimate scientific interest -- and
approvals from the Nunavut Research Institute and federal agencies -- the U.S.
team has faced criticism.
University of Saskatchewan paleontology student Donna
Postnikoff, who also did research at the site during the summer, feels the
intrusive trenches are equivalent to
digging up the Grand Canyon. David Grattan of the Canadian
Conservation Institute has complained that the digging will expose more
delicate fossils to the forces of
erosion. But while the American scientists are stung by the
criticism, they stand by their research. "Some people think that this
place is sacred, others want it for a
picnic spot," says Johnson. "We think it's a scientific resource. Maybe it's good if Canadians decide what they want to do with it."
Copyright 1999 Maclean Hunter Limited